Prospect of further pain hangs over employers, making them wary of taking on young people

So much about the jobs market is influenced by Rachel Reeves.

- Phillip Inman

Without overdoing the blame, say many experts, the chancellor’s tough budget last year and the likelihood of a repeat next month hangs over employers and how they recruit and pay staff.

The latest official figures show a rising number of young people out of work in the three months to August. More broadly, unemployment rose to a four-year high and the number of vacancies fell. And then there was the stubborn increase in the public sector wage bill, which outpaced the much more modest increase in private sector wages.

Reeves can be held to account for the increasing cost of employment after the hit to employer national insurance contributions (NICs) and the jump in the national living wage signalled at the budget last year and implemented in April.